Volunteers help clear 'foot deep' mud from driveways, gardens

Saturday, 20 August 2022

Bands of Nelson residents have grabbed their wheelbarrows and garden tools to help their neighbours living on Riverside.

Volunteers grabbed wheelbarrows and spades to help residents next to Nelson’s Maitai River clear their flood-hit driveways and gardens.

Residents of Riverside - a road running adjacent to the Maitai River in central Nelson – returned to their homes on Saturday morning to find mud covering their driveways and front gardens.

Riverside resident Neil Abercrombie said mud about “a foot deep” had covered his and his neighbour’s driveways and front gardens after the river reached the foot of his home Friday night.

Abercrombie and his wife decided not to evacuate from their property, and had been using their back section to access the Fresh Choice supermarket carpark, as they were unable to leave through the front of the property.

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Abercrombie said people had appeared on Saturday morning with wheelbarrows and shovels, and started helping him remove the dirt from his driveway.

Riverside property owner Stephanie Trevena said she was “overwhelmed” by the support being shown to her and her husband by the community.

After evacuating on Wednesday night, Trevena came back to her home on Saturday to see her garden and driveway filled with silt.

Within half an hour people had appeared to help her clear her driveway, she said.

“I don’t know how to thank people enough.”

Trevena said she had “no idea” how long it would take to clear the debris.

One woman, who chose not to be named, said she and her family had been walking and looking at the devastation caused by the floods, when it started to feel “voyeuristic.”

“]I thought] we should be giving a hand.”

They immediately decided to help out, and had been helping clear driveways and dump the mud back onto the riverbank since mid-morning – although many had been at it since 9am, she said.